Reagan Strickland (6) dribbles the ball during Scotland’s home loss to Hoke County on Friday night.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Brianna Quick (34) defends Evalynn Groemm (16).
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Analeesa Bowman (17) throws the ball in the field of play.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
Goaltender Caycee Bert punts the ball up the field.
Andrew Smolar | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG —The Scotland girls soccer team was defeated by the Hoke County Bucks in an 8-0 final on Friday night at Scotland High School. The Scots fall to 0-7 (0-7 in conference games) on the season with the loss while Hoke County improves to 5-8 (2-5 against conference opponents) with their second straight win. The Bucks have swept the regular season series, having taken the first matchup in Raeford back on March 4 by a score of 3-0.
Head Coach Jeremy White was pleased with the fight his team showed, especially under the circumstances of missing five players and three starters. He especially praised the effort and pursuit defensively as well as the performances of goaltenders Caycee Bert and Addison Anderson, who split the time in goal with Bert starting the contest. That said, he also admitted that when you get down by multiple goals early in the contest it becomes difficult to try playing catch up.
“When you get down by two, three or four goals at that point it’s just trying to maintain and stop the bleeding,” White said. “I’m proud of the effort they put in, especially our keepers Caycee Bert and Addison Anderson. Caycee blocked a p.k. in the first half, Addison came in and had a great second half. I didn’t see anything where we just let anything go by without an effort so I’m proud of the team.”
Hoke County would get five of their goals in the first 40 minutes of action. The first would come with just under eight minutes of time elapsed (32:04) off a corner kick and get headed into the net while the next would come nearly 12 minutes later (20:40) on a penalty kick tally from Jaelyn Gimenez. The other three goals would be pretty evenly spread out, occurring at the 16:46, 8:30 and 2:21 marks of the first half.
The Bucks would add three more goals in the final 40 minutes of action. The first one didn’t come until nearly 14 minutes of time had elapsed (26:09) mark while the other two came at the 19:22 and 1:39 marks of the contest.
Scotland will remain at home on Tuesday night for a matchup with the Southern Lee Cavaliers (10-2 overall and 4-2 in conference games) at 6 p.m. Southern Lee took the first meeting between the teams in Sanford 9-0 back on March 7. The Cavaliers have won their last three games (and six of their last seven), most recently a 5-1 victory over Richmond at home on Friday night.
Heading into the matchup against a hot Southern Lee team, White is hoping that some reinforcements will be on the way in the form of returning players. That said, he is aware of some areas that still need some work and is keeping the focus on finding a way to score some goals, which the Scots have yet to accomplish though their seven games thus far this season.
“Hopefully we’re back at full strength, which we should be,” White said. “We got a couple of things to work on, especially on our corner kick setups and our center defense and mid positions. We’re looking to score goals, that’s the goal all season.”